1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to peptide derivatives of heat shock proteins, and to the use thereof in the treatment of inflammatory pathologies.
2. Description of the Related Art
The heat shock proteins (hereinfrom "HSP") are produced by cells under stress conditions, especially by mycobacteria. Procaryotes such as mycobacteria, express high HSP levels, some of which, e.g. a 65 kD protein, are immuno-dominant antigens, thus their use as vaccine was envisaged, e.g. antitubercolotic vaccine (Kaufmann, S. H. E. et al., Eur. J. Immunol., 17, 351 (l987)!. WO 89/12455 gives a hint about the use of a protein of such class or a fragment thereof, specifically referring to a 65 kD protein, as a vaccine against non-viral infections and to induce an immune response.
Specific proteins within the same class were described as useful in different pathologies. For example, WO 90/10449 relates to the use of a HSP of 65 kD as a diagnostic agent and in the treatment of the insulin-independent diabetes. The same protein was found to posses a mycobacterial-specific epitope envolved in the pathogenesis of the auto-immune arthritis Gaston, J. F. et al., Nature, 331, 171 (1988)!.
The HSP sequence weighing 10 kD is disclosed by Baird, P. N. et al., J. Gen. Microb., 135, 931-939 (1989) which describes it as coming from Mycobacterium tuberculosis BGC, while Mehra, V. et al., J. Exp. Med., 175, 275-284 (1992) discloses a homologous protein having the same weight from Mycobacterium leprae. Barnes, P. F. et al., J. Immun., 148, 1835-1840 (1992) discloses a 10 kD protein coming from Mycobacterium tuberculosis as highly immuno-reactive antigen hypothetically useful as anti-tuberculotic vaccine. Hartman, D. J. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89, 3394-3398 (1992) identified, in the mammal, a protein homologous to the 10 kD proteins described in the literature above mentioned.